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CTV Two Vancouver/Victoria Now Available in HD

CTV Two Vancouver/Victoria Now Available in HD

CTV Two Vancouver/Victoria is now available in high definition on Bell Satellite TV using the call letters CTV2v. The new HD channel is in addition to the standard definition Channel 256, which remains available.

"CTV Two Vancouver/Victoria is now able to bring its amazing programming lineup in High Definition to Bell TV viewers," said Kevin Bell, Acting General Manager, CTV Two Vancouver/Victoria. "Today's announcement allows us to serve our community and all of British Columbia much better."

CTV Two Vancouver/Victoria delivers more than must-see entertainment programming; it also delivers top-notch local news loaded with energy and intense pride for the region. From its street-front Victoria broadcast headquarters and Nanaimo news centre. The station's excellence goes far beyond local news: it's one of the leading supporters of community groups and charitable organizations on Vancouver Island through its sponsorships of local activities and events.

The only problem I have with this is how they didn't add any Global HD stations for any of those markets. Global Maritimes HD, Global Montreal HD, Global Winnipeg HD, and Global Regina HD are now at a competitive disadvantage over CTV stations in those markets. I wouldn't have a problem with them adding a few more CTV HD stations, but for them to add 6 additional CTV HD stations and no new Global HD, Citytv HD, or CBC HD stations is very anti-competitive IMO. They don't even carry Citytv HD Vancouver! The worst part is that Shaw Direct doesn't do the same thing with Global. You don't see Shaw Direct adding Global HD stations and not carrying CTV HD, in fact for every Global station they carry, they carry the CTV station from the same market (Bell on the other hand makes sure they carry a CTV station for every market they carry a Global station, yet doesn't do the same for their competitor, for example they don't carry Global Regina but carry both CTV Regina and CTV Saskatoon)

Now Bell has informed a number of local stations that they do plan to carry their HD signal eventually, yet they haven't given them a set date, their excuse is not enough satellite space, yet they seem to have room for 6 additional CTV stations.

Oh yeah, last year at a CRTC hearing on BDU's, Bell provided the CRTC with a list of HD stations they plan to add by September 1st 2011, the list had an even mix of CTV HD, Global HD, Citytv HD, and CBC HD stations. This was before they purchased CTV, in fact I believe the list was submitted before it was even announced that Bell would be buying CTV. Now the list had about 20 HD stations total, so clearly things didn't go as planned and it likely has to do with not enough room, but I find it very convenient that they only seem to have room for the CTV HD stations, even more convenient that they are adding CTV HD stations that weren't on the original list they submitted.

Global Montreal issued a press release last month indicating that they expected to be available in HD on Bell TV this month, so there is still hope. The extra CTV channels that were added are quite good to have, as they open up a number of additional time shifting options (Halifax & Regina).

You're right about CITY - it would be great to get CITY Vancouver (at least). In particular, CITY Vancouver will occassionally air Whitecaps FC games when Sportsnet has other commitments, and it's pretty embarrasing that the primary sponsor of the team (Bell) can't make those games available in HD.

38. (...) The Commission acknowledges that BCE’s move to MPEG-4 would create surplus capacity for additional services. However, any excess capacity will be used to provide increased choice to Canadians, including the carriage of additional Canadian television services. Accordingly, the Commission views both the carriage of local services and the creation of additional capacity as a benefit to the Canadian broadcasting system. Consequently, the Commission accepts BCE’s proposal to allocate $60 million of its total benefits package toward this initiative and directs BCE’s DTH service to carry at least 43 additional television services that meet the following criteria in standard definition by 31 August 2012 and to make these services available as part of the basic package in the appropriate local markets:

The only problem I have with this is how they didn't add any Global HD stations for any of those markets. Global Maritimes HD, Global Montreal HD, Global Winnipeg HD, and Global Regina HD are now at a competitive disadvantage over CTV stations in those markets. I wouldn't have a problem with them adding a few more CTV HD stations, but for them to add 6 additional CTV HD stations and no new Global HD, Citytv HD, or CBC HD stations is very anti-competitive IMO. They don't even carry Citytv HD Vancouver! The worst part is that Shaw Direct doesn't do the same thing with Global. You don't see Shaw Direct adding Global HD stations and not carrying CTV HD, in fact for every Global station they carry, they carry the CTV station from the same market (Bell on the other hand makes sure they carry a CTV station for every market they carry a Global station, yet doesn't do the same for their competitor, for example they don't carry Global Regina but carry both CTV Regina and CTV Saskatoon)

Now Bell has informed a number of local stations that they do plan to carry their HD signal eventually, yet they haven't given them a set date, their excuse is not enough satellite space, yet they seem to have room for 6 additional CTV stations.

Oh yeah, last year at a CRTC hearing on BDU's, Bell provided the CRTC with a list of HD stations they plan to add by September 1st 2011, the list had an even mix of CTV HD, Global HD, Citytv HD, and CBC HD stations. This was before they purchased CTV, in fact I believe the list was submitted before it was even announced that Bell would be buying CTV. Now the list had about 20 HD stations total, so clearly things didn't go as planned and it likely has to do with not enough room, but I find it very convenient that they only seem to have room for the CTV HD stations, even more convenient that they are adding CTV HD stations that weren't on the original list they submitted.

I just think it is such a waste to add all those HD channels. These channels air pretty much nothing different from the other stations other than local news. And all of these new CTV channels don't even produce their local news in HD anyways, so basically there is no real benefit to add them when bandwidth is limited. Add an East and then a West HD channels, that seems good enough, but adding Montreal when you already have Toronto seems pointless (both are in the same time zone), and then adding Winnipeg or even those in Saskatchewan just seems, again, pointless. If bandwidth was unlimited and you could add as many channels as you wanted without ever having to worry about space, then go ahead, add every HD local channel out there, but that's not the case, by Bell's own admission.

Global Montreal issued a press release last month indicating that they expected to be available in HD on Bell TV this month, so there is still hope. The extra CTV channels that were added are quite good to have, as they open up a number of additional time shifting options (Halifax & Regina).

You're right about CITY - it would be great to get CITY Vancouver (at least). In particular, CITY Vancouver will occassionally air Whitecaps FC games when Sportsnet has other commitments, and it's pretty embarrasing that the primary sponsor of the team (Bell) can't make those games available in HD.

Bell has told a number of local channels that they intend to carry their HD signal, They were supposed to be added in "early September" but that date was delayed, well it was delayed for everyone except for the CTV stations.

Here is the original list of HD stations Bell told the CRTC they planned to add by September 1st 2011.

As I said before, this list was submitted before Bell purchased CTV, but as you can see, every CTV station on that list has been added to Bell TV, In fact they even added CTV Victoria and CTV Barrie, two CTV stations that weren't on the original list. I can understand them not adding all 20 channels, but to add just the CTV's and tell everyone else to wait until there is room shouldn't be okay IMO

I know some of the channels they added are good to have, but Global stations in those markets would also be good to have. 4 out of the 6 CTV stations they added provide no additional value to subscribers, they don't provide any value for timeshifting as they operate in the same time zones and none of those stations produce local news in HD. It only benefits the stations financial situation, the problem is they are only helping out the financial situations of the stations they own.

Why are you complaining about Bell's HD offer when Shaw's ain't better?

I'm not complaining about the amount of HD channels they are adding, the point of my complaint is how they are ONLY adding CTV HD stations and not adding other HD stations (such as Global HD, CBC HD, Citytv HD) from the same market. Bell carries more CTV HD stations than they do Global HD, CBC HD, and Citytv HD COMBINED.

Shaw Direct doesn't do this, there is no market where they carry a Global HD (or SD for that matter) station where they don't carry a CTV HD (or SD) station.

This relates to something I brought up in the thread regarding the CRTC's recommendations on vertical integration. The CRTC's rather weak suggestion that the BDUs move towards a more "pick and pay" type of system, but without any specific rules or guidelines about how basic cable and packaging of channels should be arranged, appears to allow the BDUs to get away with greatly favouring their own channels. Whether you have Shaw, Bell, or Rogers, their new (and presumably more expensive) basic service may include ALL of their own channels and as few of their competitor's channels as possible.

Remember that the CRTC ordered SHAW and SHAWDIRECT to add more channels when the bought Global, but they are NOT permitted to add more stations that they own until they get the numbers up for stations that they do not own. The number of owned stations by SHAW are already the lions share of the stations that they carry.